Pillars of Character

Chapter 3

(Back to the present event...)

“Hey, Alphie! Get everyone out of the area and back towards the tents, there are monsters headed this way!” Alroy said in a panic.

“Alroy?! What’s going on?” Noel questioned.

“Did you not hear a word I said? Monsters are here. Gather everyone around the tents and make for Stoken’s lab.” Alroy ordered.

“A-Alright… but I need to help Pamela first,” Noel said.

“Forget about her. She’s a lost cause. She’ll only attract the monsters your way.” Alroy explained.

“No way! I can’t do that!” Noel retorted. Arend had overheard the conversation and arrived as soon as he could.

“Go! I’ll handle gathering everyone! Rescue Pamela. I’ll grab the perfume and water to defuse the scent on her once we’re inside!” Arend informed. Noel noticed how tired Arend appeared and began to hesitate.

“Are you sure you’re-” Noel was interrupted by an irritated Arend.

“Stop worrying so much. I’ll be fine. Now go!” Arend ordered.

“Right!” Noel looked at Arend and gave him a nod filled with trust. He then hurried as fast as he could to the south of camp. When he made it to Pamela’s side he halted briefly. He hesitated not to step in the blood before throwing caution to the wind. He came to her aid and bent down to her side, extending a hand to grab her.

“Pamela! Get up. It’s not safe here.” Noel shouted.

“Noel- I- I am…” She was as broken as the shards piercing her body. Tears streamed down her face as she quivered. “I messed up. I tried-”

“It’s fine. It was an accident right?” Noel said, looking her in the eyes.

“Just leave me…” Pamela sorrowfully said.

“I can’t do that.” Noel expressed. “Now get up.” Noel realized there was no time for reasoning and grabbed Pamela, who was limp, and forced her to stand, bearing all of her weight as his own.

“GRRRR!” Suddenly with a snarl, coming through the grassy fields, a monster jumped out into the open.

“RUN!” Noel shouted. “Go, go, go!” Noel led Pamela by the hand and dragged her back toward the tent. The fear of death encouraged her legs to move.

“What is that thing!?” Pamela cried in fear. Noel took a glance and recognized the beast.

“It’s a Pincerback! Whatever happens, do not let it grab you.” Noel warned. Pincerbacks were black dog-like beasts with no ears, tails, or blind spots. They have three sets of yellow oval eyes that wrap around their head. On their underbelly was an incision that stretched from their chest to the end of their stomach. The monsters were known for pouncing on their prey. Once they had their target restrained, the beasts would open the slit from beneath them, and from it, a mouth would emerge. Their rib cages would stretch and latch into their prey until the teeth that lay within finished feeding. The mouth on its head has inward-facing teeth, making escaping their bites nigh impossible without losing large sums of flesh in the process.

The beast gave chase immediately, targeting Pamela due to her scent. The hound was fast. As the gap closed, Noel thought he was left with no other choice. He wasn’t experienced in combat, nor were any of the spell towers in his headspace constructed for offensive magic. But that didn’t matter to him. He didn’t have to fight, instead, his only goal was to get Pamela to safety. Noel began going through the process of casting the advanced version of the second spell he had learned throughout the last ten years. He gained it, right before he started working for Trata. It was a thank-you gift from his parents. They had given him a spell scroll as a parting gift for all the times he helped them with their farmwork.

There were only three known ways to learn an origin spell in the world of Dreidel. The first was inheritance. Some people knew a spell at birth. Noel was one of these inheritors. It was a given, due to him being a half-fey. Half-fey, and the other half races, were known as Charmlings. Aptly named since they caught the eye of the Demiurge Shin. A Charmling was simply a blanket term for those with two parents of different races. Shin the god of magic, knew that those who were mixed would stumble to find a place where they belonged and so, were given the knowledge of a spell at birth as compensation of sorts. This was how Noel knew the breeze spell from such a youthful age.

The second way to learn magic was an awakening. Similar to the way Noel first learned advanced magic. Time would stop and the person would experience the tranquil moment designed specifically for them. This was the rarest of the three. Wizards theorized that the knowledge of the spell was always residing inside the person who experienced an awakening, it was just simply waiting below the surface of the water inside the headspace, ready to emerge from the depths.

The third and final method was a spell scroll. Saying the spell's name and touching the scroll after reading it, would cause the words written on the page to be expelled into the air and then transferred directly into the mind. This was the most common method but was quite expensive to do so. Its success rate wasn’t guaranteed either as if the reader lacked the aptitude for the spell, it would sink into the water of the headspace forever lost in the mind. The spell scroll Noel was given by his parents contained the knowledge of the water-based origin spell Splash. Its base abilities created a small harmless amount of water from the hand and shot it at a short range. He had crafted a spell tower for it months prior. However, the last time he had used it was to water his parents' crops before leaving Toll.

Noel began going through the order of operations to cast Splash as an advanced spell. He recited the process he had written inside the walls of his spell tower. It required extreme concentration as getting distracted or interrupted would cause his spell to fail which he couldn’t afford to let happen. With each layer added to the spell tower, the cost amount of mana used to cast the spell increased.

“First the splash spell, then add multiple layers of quantity increasing the amount of water. Next, add a shape to the spell, and create a wide range. Finally, push the spell with great force to increase its distance." It was simple, but he needed to make do with all that he had. Noel gripped his forearm and braced himself. The amount of pressure that exuded from the spell would cause his aim to be poor. Ready for the worst, he turned back and faced the beast who was now only three meters away from him.

“Surge Stream!” Noel shouted. The monster pounced toward Pamela ready to sink its teeth into her collarbone. As it did so, Noel stepped in between the two acting as a shield. The dog was met with an abundant amount of water that blasted it backward, knocking it prone. Noel aimed directly for the Pincerback’s head as it went in for a bite and did so for good reason. The hound suddenly became dazed for a moment. Noel had managed to force-feed it a large amount of water right down its windpipe causing it to choke. As it halted, trying to expel the water from its lungs, Noel took this as an opportunity to flee with Pamela. Suddenly, however, a thought occurred to him.

“Wait… something is wrong. How did these monsters get so close in the first place? The adventurer's job was to clear the area of nearby foes but these showed up way too fast. It was almost like they were already close by. Not only that but where is the rest of the adventuring party anyway?” Noel looked around camp, as he and Pamela arrived. “They should be out fighting these monsters.”

With little time to rest, Noel and Pamela hurried with heavy breaths toward the Alchemist’s Laboratory.

“Noel! I can’t run anymore. I’m too tired.” Pamela stated.

“Just a little further and then will get you cleaned up,” Noel explained. He heard more barking coming from Pincerbacks off in the distance. He wasn’t sure of the next move he needed to make. “Is hiding in the tent the best option here? I was barely able to halt even one of them.” Soon enough, Noel arrived at the Alchemist Tent with Pamela. Upon entering, Noel was caught off guard, by Arend armed with a plank of wood ready to bash the first thing that entered the tent.

“HYAH!” Arend shouted with a warcry, swinging his improvised weapon.

“Friendly fire!” Noel shouted. Arend stopped his attack inches before it landed on Noel’s skull.

“Ahh! Geez man. You almost gave me a heart attack! Next time announce that it's you.” Arend shouted. He then quickly looked at the Helixgrass stains all over Pamela’s blouse. “Tch! Now I look like the bad guy.” Seeing her in the state she was in made Arend feel slightly guilty for egging her the night before, but he wouldn’t apologize for what he said. He knew he didn’t have time anyway. The monsters were closing the distance and would arrive any second. With great haste, Arend grabbed the five diffusing reagents he had crafted only moments ago and handed several of them to Noel. The two then used them to douse Pamela’s entire body, diluting the effects of the Helixgrass liquid blood scent. This caused her clothing to glow a bright red as if the cloth itself was ready to be used as an ingredient for a healing potion.

“Will that really work? Isn’t that just painting a target on her back?” Off in the corner, was the Ecologist Lavender who seemed incredibly tense. Lavender is a member of the Mythrix race. These dark-skinned, tall blonde-haired humanoids mostly resided in the outskirts of the Gold Continent. They are known for their deep connection and control over nature. A common known fact about them was that the people did not require food to survive, instead they only needed water and direct sunlight like a flower. In the center of their foreheads resided a red oval gemstone called a Rubis. This stone allowed them to photosynthesize with the sun for sustenance satiating their hunger. The Mythrix could store sunlight inside the Rubis as a source of long-term energy, however this same energy was used to cast their spells. They needed to carefully preserve it, as unlike most races who regenerated mana over resting, the Mythrix were only capable of recharging their mana via sunlight. If they ran out, they would suffer from starvation and spell fatigue since the energy they gathered in replace of food was also their source of mana.

“Of course it will!” Trata said. “Arend is a very capable alchemist.” He claimed as he was currently rummaging through his supplies in a panic. It appeared he was looking for something that was lost.

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Using his devilish eyes, Noel counted everyone in the tent in a single second. There were only eight people in total including himself. Trata, Lavender, Arend, Pamela, Noel, and three farmers.

“Arend, where is everyone else?” He asked as he peeked outside the tent, keeping watch.

“This was everybody…” Arend explained. “I checked all the tents, but I couldn’t find anyone else. Not even Professor Stoken...” A worried expression began to show on his face.

“That makes no sense.” Noel thought. Questions began to fester Noel’s psyche. “Where did everyone go? The people missing are Farmer Jamins, Professor Stoken, and the rest of the adventurers. I saw Alroy earlier, but why hasn’t he come back yet? And the others, shouldn’t they have taken care of the monsters by now? Pincerbacks are low-ranking enemies that skilled adventurers should have no trouble dealing with. I… must assume the worst. What if Alroy doesn’t plan on fighting them? What will we do? Can we really take on a pack of Pincerbacks by ourselves? I don’t have the time to rebuild my Spell Towers either…” As Noel was beginning to panic, Pamela grabbed a hold of his hand.

“Noel…?” Pamela looked into his eyes as he stared into the ethos lost in thought. She couldn’t see the glimmer she was familiar with at this moment. She was about to speak before she was interrupted by shouting.

“Agh! Why can’t I find my key?” Trata slammed the ground in frustration.

“Quiet down. Are you trying to get us killed? What key are you looking for, old man?” Arend asked.

“They key to my chest. It contains all the Helixgrass liquid vials we’ve processed throughout the last three weeks.” Trata said.

“Were they stolen?” Arend asked himself.

Suddenly the sound of a galloping horse was heard off in the distance. Pamela peeked out of the tent with Noel and let out a sigh of relief.

“Ah- Thank goodness, someone is coming to help!” She said excitedly.

“ARF ARF!” Running quickly behind the rider was a pack of five Pincerbacks which were chasing the hooded person at breakneck speeds. The monsters movements seemed rabid and sporadic. Each step they took made it appear as if they would crash into anything in their way, like a wagon cart barreling out of control.

“What are they doing? They’re leading them straight this way!?” Pamela began to sweat.

“This is..!” Noel realized what was happening, but it was too late. The hooded figure on the horse quickly arrived at the tent. However, they did not stop in their tracks. Instead, they darted right past it, grabbing a hold of the tent's polyester cover, and ripping it off with a force powerful enough to cause everyone and everything to crash down from within. Afterward, they stopped their horse a short distance away.

“AH!” Everyone who was inside the tent let out a scream as they were revealed from under the covers of the tent. Now completely exposed, nothing was standing in the way of the Pincerbacks that were headed directly at them. The hooded figure reached into their bag and pulled out a perfectly unbroken piece of Helixgrass. While the attention was directed toward the pack, they threw it with great force at the center of the group. It landed directly behind Noel and Pamela’s backside, shattering apart and marking them all for death.

“Heh, good luck, nyah! ~♥” The hooded figure revealed herself while blowing a kiss. She was a young female with blue hair, cat-like ears, and a long skinny tail that swayed playfully behind her. After her brief greeting, she took off without looking back.

Everyone had been knocked on their butts and disoriented. The rug was effectively pulled out from beneath them, and now they were completely helpless.

“Noel!” Arend shouted as he watched the first of five hounds leap toward his best friend. The second hound was following right behind ready to jump at Pamela only moments later.

“No time!” Noel didn’t have the time to cast an advanced spell. And even if he could, he knew there was no way to keep focus on it. Instead, Noel closely examined the Pincerback’s eyes. It was aiming for his throat. Left with no choice, he offered his left forearm as bait, using it as a guard. The hound crunched its teeth into Noel’s flesh. He had never been stabbed before but understood what it was like as over 30 of the 42 razor-sharp fangs latched onto him, shredding apart his skin.

Meanwhile, Pamela could only accept her fate. She didn’t have the foreknowledge or instinct as to how to best survive the current onslaught. She only raised her two arms in an attempt to stop the momentum of the beast. The Pincherback leaped toward her and was then swiftly kicked by Noel, who refused to let the monster have its way. This only spared Pamela the gratification of instant death, as the Pincerback was thrown off course slightly. Its fangs missed their target and bit into Pamela’s shoulder pinning her to the ground.

The three farmers who were with them made a run for it, splitting apart the group. Two of the farmers dashed toward the left of the tent which was south of camp, while the other one broke off to the right heading to the north. The three remaining Pincerbacks swiftly tackled the farmers and prevented their escape. The only available people who could help were Arend, Trata, and Lavender.

Arend wished he had Noel’s eyes. If he did, he could quickly gather enough information and decide what to do next. However, he did not have that luxury and needed to think fast regardless.

“Arend! Save Pamela!” Noel begged as he screamed in pain. He was desperately trying to pull away from the Pincerback that bit his arm, but the beast weighed well over 60 pounds. There was no escaping it, even if Noel wanted to. The hound's teeth had locked over the bone in his forearm. The force from the bite caused it to break.

Arend stood up as fast as humanly possible. He couldn’t bear to imagine the pain his friend was experiencing. He had to act fast. To his surprise, the farmers who fled were not instantly killed, but their lives were in immediate danger. Both they and Pamela were about to be eaten alive. The Pincerback’s slit from beneath them widened, and its rib cage had already spread apart and latched into the sides of their torsos. They punctured deep enough that it could prove fatal if pulled off instead of being dislodged. Still, Arend believed It wasn’t all a lost cause. Lavender the Ecologist, who was paralyzed behind him, knew the Closure spell. And better yet, she wasn’t grabbed by the monsters. So there was still a chance to save people using that and his stash of potions of healing he had in his satchel.

Suddenly, by the time Arend got his bearings, Noel’s position had worsened. He was now in the same predicament as everyone else. In a matter of seconds, the beast pinned him on his back and was on top of him, ready to sink its ribcage into his sides the moment it was stable enough.

Arend was now left with a choice. Save his best friend, the one he made a promise with long ago, or the girl he told to go home because she was a danger to herself. To him, there was never even a choice to begin with. Arend pulled out his flintlock pistol from his waist.

“Send!” He shouted. From his satchel, his gold pouch became 6 gold lighter than before. “Now, exchange!” The Alchemist Seal that was on his left hand began to glow, and from his pouch, one of the three bullets he had created the night before vanished. Instantaneously, his firearm glowed with a bright light for only a moment. The bullet from his bag had combined with his pistol. He had used alchemy to load his weapon.

At its core, Alchemy is capable of three things. Deconstruction (breaking down materials and objects), Synthesization (fusing objects or materials together), and Transmutation (changing objects and materials into something else). True alchemists utilized all three of these properties to their fullest.

“Get off of him!” Arend screamed. He aimed his pistol at the monster holding Noel down and fired. The bullets that Arend had crafted were special. The gunpowder he used in their creation was stored inside the rounds themselves and the metal exterior was coated with highly combustible magnesium (Mg). The hammer of the pistol was designed to pierce the ammunition while also creating a spark. The spherical bullets would then ignite from within creating an explosion to propel the bullets while also catching them on fire.

There was a brief silence that brought all parties to a halt. The gunshot was so loud that it temporarily hampered the Pincerbacks. Strangely, the hounds were no longer feral and rabid. It was as if their intelligence was reclaimed by the noise.

The dog that had pinned Noel was now missing a large chunk of its skull. It was killed instantly. The bullet that hit it was 1.4 inches in diameter and melded its way through its flesh like a hammer striking iron when hot. This caught the top of its head on fire but also cauterized a large section of the damage. The other beasts examined their fallen ally and immediately became wary of Arend.

Pamela looked over at Noel with tears in her eyes.

“Thank goodness he saved you instead of me. I’m glad.” Pamela thought. She was given a glimmer of hope, knowing that Noel was safe, even for the moment. She knew she wouldn’t have been able to live with herself if he died instead of her. Now all she could do was lie on a silver platter for the Pincerback she was pinned by. “Huh?” She saw anger in Noel’s eyes. He was glaring at Arend. Pamela figured it was because he chose him first. “That’s just like you…” the pain from her shoulder and waist was causing her to black out. However, Pamela was lucky. The beast’s mouth opened wide and its tongue that rested within its underbelly mouth, elongated and licked her torso. Helixgrass shards from her before were still lodged in her skin and were as sharp as ever. The Pincerback, while salivating over its meal, pressed its tongue against what might as well have been twelve knives. This caused it to jolt back in pain, buying her a few precious seconds.

“Get back wretched fiends!” A voice shouted. A rime-covered arrow soared across the camp and pierced the beast that pinned Pamela down in the jaw, but it wasn’t enough to outright kill it. It appeared that the Pincerback regained its composure and pulled away in time to avoid an instant death. This action forced its teeth to rend off the remaining meat on Pamela’s shoulder freeing her from its bite, but causing a grievous wound in the process. Her consciousness began to fade.

“Frozen Barbs!” The arrowhead, from within the mouth of the hound, instantaneously exploded outward. Icicle spikes pierced from within the Pincerback in all directions and skewered its head as well as its brain, abruptly ending its life.

Off roughly 14 meters away, was a middle-aged Arcanti. Yselda Trueglade (Yeh-sell-duh) had arrived just in the nick of time. He was one of the five contracted adventurers who were hired to protect the expedition team. His hair was a deep black and his eyes a soft hazel color. He wore light-weighted dark blue leather garbs that had the symbol of a wyrm embryo as its emblem. He wielded a longbow with a silver crescent moon pendant that hung at the bottom and on his back was a quiver of arrows that counted roughly twenty in total. His waist side appeared to have two sheathed curved daggers on both hips.

“Yselda!” Lavender and Trata shouted.

“Don’t just stand there. Aid Noel and Pamela with your closure spell!” Yselda screamed in frustration. He took out another arrow from his quiver, covered it with frost, and then fired it at the Pincerback that isolated the farmer north of the group. This time, however, the hound now knew the dangers of the arrow and without delay, pulled back and detached from the farmer while tearing him apart as it dodged. The older man made no sound. When the Pincerback leaped back, it revealed the stomach of the farmer had already been feasted upon. His bowels and intestines were shredded with the newly opened hole in his stomach.

“Right!” Lavender looked back at Noel, who was currently being assisted by Arend. He was carefully slitting the jaw of the beast with a knife in an effort to widen its mouth so he could safely remove the fangs without having to pull them off forcefully. Noel appeared to be in a great deal of agony during this process. Trata rushed toward Pamela’s side. She had fallen unconscious and had already begun to bleed out from her injury.

“Hurry. She’s dying!” Trata ordered. He was frustrated he couldn’t find the key to his Helixgrass container.

“Almighty divine, intertwine your will with mine, seal away what has been stolen, shield the wounds in time. Greater Closure!” Lavender placed her hands on Pamela and cast the spell. It cost her virtually half the normal amount. A large portion of the expended mana was channeled through the Rubis gemstone on her forehead and used direct sunlight. The injuries on Pamela’s shoulder and torso closed. She needed to enhance her spell with an incantation, as the normal version would have only taken care of smaller wounds. The spell did not repair the lost flesh or return to its original state, but instead only stopped the bleeding. Lavender checked Pamela’s pulse. Her skin appeared pale, but she was still breathing faintly.

“What do you think?” Trata asked with apprehension.

“I’m not a medical professional, but I think she’ll make it if we can administer a potion of healing soon...” Lavender clarified.

At this point, Noel was freed from his constraints thanks to the help of Arend. However, the fact that his friend did not rescue Pamela frustrated him to no end.

“Closure.” Lavender cast her magic on Noel. His wounds weren’t nearly as severe. So she opted to conserve her mana as even with the direct sunlight, it wasn’t infinite. In the moments of recovery, Noel utilized his accurate eyes to spot the three farmers. The two men south of him appeared to be alive but are currently being eaten alive. The one north of him appeared to be dead, but Noel wouldn’t lose hope just yet.